认知与发展心理学研究室知识库

儿童青少年期是个体快速发展的时期，既包括生理上的快速发展（如身高和体重等），也包括心理上的快速变化（如认知和情绪等）。揭示该时期大脑组织发育和各种认知能力快速发展之间的关联，对理解大脑机制和发展规律具有重要科学意义。智力相关脑机制的研究发现：智力与脑指标之间的关系在不同年龄段表现出个体差异，已有纵向研究发现智力与皮层厚度、皮层表面积的发育相关。本文采用“彩巢计划——成长在中国”6-17岁178名参与者三次测量共378人次的磁共振扫描数据对皮层形态学和功能指标在儿童青少年期的发育与智力的关系进行分析。采用广义可加混合模型对智力成分（分测验原始分）、皮层指标的发育及智力与皮层发育关系在多尺度空间上进行建模。

研究结果发现：1）智力在4个维度上均随年龄上升，维度内的发育曲线更为相似，且在小学阶段上升速率更快；高级认知功能上升更快，初级认知功能则相对平缓；智力的发展存在性别差异。2）皮层在该年龄段随年龄线性变薄，扣带回、楔前叶、外侧颞叶皮层随龄变薄的速率更快。3）男孩皮层表面积显著大于女孩，并且皮层表面积的发育轨线具有显著性别差异，女孩呈下降或倒U型轨线，其开始稳定下降的时间早于男孩，男孩在发育曲线上表现出波动性，其开始稳定下降的时间约为14岁。4）皮层局部功能一致性随龄降低，高级功能网络的皮层局部功能一致性下降速率更快；两种相邻点下的发育轨线具有极大的相似性，但一级相邻点的局部功能一致性能够检测到更多的性别差异，女孩的平均局部功能一致性高于男孩。高级功能网络在结构和功能上均表现出较高的可塑性，而这种可塑性可能是皮层发育与认知发展相互作用的结果。5）智力与皮层表面积之间的关联在儿童青少年期是动态的，超高智商组的儿童表现出更多的皮层表研究结果发现：1）智力在4个维度上均随年龄上升，维度内的发育曲线更为相似，且在小学阶段上升速率更快；高级认知功能上升更快，初级认知功能则相对平缓；智力的发展存在性别差异。2）皮层在该年龄段随年龄线性变薄，扣带回、楔前叶、外侧颞叶皮层随龄变薄的速率更快。3）男孩皮层表面积显著大于女孩，并且皮层表面积的发育轨线具有显著性别差异，女孩呈下降或倒U型轨线，其开始稳定下降的时间早于男孩，男孩在发育曲线上表现出波动性，其开始稳定下降的时间约为14岁。4）皮层局部功能一致性随龄降低，高级功能网络的皮层局部功能一致性下降速率更快；两种相邻点下的发育轨线具有极大的相似性，但一级相邻点的局部功能一致性能够检测到更多的性别差异，女孩的平均局部功能一致性高于男孩。高级功能网络在结构和功能上均表现出较高的可塑性，而这种可塑性可能是皮层发育与认知发展相互作用的结果。5）智力与皮层表面积之间的关联在儿童青少年期是动态的，超高智商组的儿童表现出更多的皮层表先天因素的影响更大。6）皮层表面积能够预测智力分测验原始分数，并且超高智商组的智力分数更不可预测，而平均智商组女孩的分测验分数则能更多的由其皮层表面积来解释。同一测验不同智商组所涉及的脑区不同，表明不同智商组同一认知功能的神经机制存在差异；同一智商组不同测试间所涉及脑区的重叠为智力的一般因素说提供了神经基础证据的支持。

以上结果部分重复了前人的研究结果，超高智商组具有更大的皮层可塑性。首次对皮层局部功能一致性的发育轨线、性别差异和智商关联进行了分析。并发现不同智商组皮层表面积在对智力分数解释上的特点。为理解智力的发展特点和性别差异及其在发育过程中的神经机制探索提供了进一步的证据。

Childhood and adolescence are periods in which individuals develop rapidly, including both rapid physical development (such as height and weight) and rapid psychological changes (such as cognition and emotions). Reveling the relationship between brain tissue development and the rapid development of various cognitive abilities during this period is of great scientific significance for understanding brain mechanisms and development laws. Studies of intelligence-related brain mechanisms have found that the relationship between intelligence and brain indicators showed individual differences in different age groups. Longitudinal studies have found that intelligence is related to the development of cortical thickness and cortical area. However, there are few studies on this dynamic association between intelligence and brain development. In this paper, the relationship between the development and intelligence of cortical morphology and functional metrics in childhood and adolescence was analyzed by using the "Chinese Color Nest Project: Growing Up in China" 178 participants aged 6一17 years and total of 378 scans for 3 time points. The generalized additive-mixed model was used to systematically analysis the development of intelligence components (subtests' raw scores), the development of cortical metrics, and the relationship between intelligence and cortical development.

The results showed that: 1)the raw scores of the four intelligence dimensions showed a nonlinear upward trend, the development curves resembled within the four dimensions, and the growth rate was faster in primary school stage; high order cognitive abilities exhibit faster increase rate, while primary abilities show a relative flat trend. 2) Cortical thickness declined with age increase, cingulate gyrus, precuneus and lateral temporal lobe had greater thinning rates. 3) Boys had greater cortical area than girls, and the developmental trajectory of cortical surface area manifested significant gender differences. Girls have a downward or inverted U-shaped trajectory, and begin to decline steadily earlier than boys, and boys show volatility on the development curve, steadily decline around 14 years old. 4) Surface-based regional homogeneity showed significantly decrease with age, high-order functional networks demonstrate greater decline rate; and the developmental trajectories with two neighbor types are similar, while the surface-based regional homogeneity of first-order neighbors can detect more gender differences, and the mean local functional homogeneity of girls is higher than that of boys. High order functional networks exhibit high plasticity in both brain structure and functional activity, and this may due to the interaction between cortical development and cognitive development. 5) The association between intelligence and cortical surface area is dynamic during childhood and adolescence, and children in the superiorhigh IQ group show more changes in cortical surface area, suggesting greater cortical plasticity. The brain areas that show significant difference among IQ groups are mainly located in the frontal, parietal and temporal lobe, supporting the P-FTT intelligence theory. There is no significant difference found in cortical thickness and 2dReHo developmental curves among different IQ groups. Previous studies have found that the cortical thickness is reatly affected by the environment, while the surface area of the cortex is more affected by heredity. Therefore, the results of this study suggest that intelligence is more affected by congenital factors. 6) The cortical area can predict the raw scores of the intelligence subtests, and the score of the superiorhigh IQ group is more unpredictable, while the raw subtest scores of the average IQ group girls can be explained more by their cortical surface area. The different brain regions involved in the same test indicate that the neural mechanism of the same cognitive function in different IQ groups is different; the overlap of brain regions involved in different tests in the same IQ group provides neural basis evidence for the hypothesis of general factor across intellectual abilities.

The results partly replicated the findings of previous studies, the superiorhigh IQ group show greater cortical plasticity. For the first time, the developmental trajectory, gender differences and development effects on different IQ groups of 2dReHo were analyzed. Cortical surface area showed different in the ability to interpret raw subtest scores in different IQ groups. These provide new insights into the developmental mechanisms of intelligenceand gender differences and their interaction during development.